A fun challenge from GAFF.
Preamble says its a 50th year anniversary puzzle. I dont know what this could be referring to so help here would be much appreciated.
FF: 9 DD: 7
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | WALDORF SALAD |
Mix wads of lard with a large dish of fruit and nut (7,5)
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[ WAD OF LARD A L ( large ) ]* |
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| 10 | SEA VIEW |
Directions about mid-year contest for prospect of holiday, maybe (3,4)
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SW ( directions, South , West ) around [ EA ( yEAr, mid ) VIE ( contest ) ] |
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| 11 | AVOCADO |
Leaderless chaos and trouble for plant (7)
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hAVOC ( chaos, without starting letter ) ADO ( trouble ) |
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| 12 | COURT |
Pay attention to faulty area? (5)
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cryptic def ; doubly so in my opinion … on a tennis court and a regular judicial court |
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| 13 | VEHEMENT |
Heated issue about European border (8)
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VENT ( issue ) around [ E ( european ) HEM ( border ) ] |
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| 15 | INSPECTORS |
Bill members since sport changed (10)
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[ SINCE SPORT ]* |
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| 16 | STYE |
Involved in last year’s infection (4)
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hidden in "..laST YEar's.." |
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| 18 | TUTU |
Skirt bishop’s two French addresses (4)
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dual def; TU TU ( french for you , twice ); referring to a skirt and bishop desmond tutu |
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| 20 | WILDEBEEST |
Antelope furious with visitor collecting insects (10)
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WILD ( furious ) [ ET ( visitor ) collecting BEES ( insects ) ] |
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| 22 | INRUSHES |
How banks may be covered for sudden arrivals (8)
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cryptic def; bank here refers to sides of the river etc |
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| 24 | RHINO |
Nose may be black or white (5)
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cryptic def; i am iffy about direct equivalence between the def and the solve |
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| 26 | TOURACO |
Duty to answer company flier (7)
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TOUR ( duty ) A ( answer ) CO ( company ) ; i managed a successful solve without knowing the bird |
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| 27 | ORIGAMI |
In central Nairobi, biblical characters are going back to folding sheets (7)
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reverse of MAGI ( biblical characters ) in reverse of IRO ( naIRObi, central characters ) |
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| 28 | YOU STARTED IT |
Get rid of cunning change after unknown solver opened hostilities (3,7,2)
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[ OUST ( get rid of ) ART ( cunning ) EDIT ( change ) ] after Y ( unknown ) |
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| DOWN | ||
| 2 | ALARUMS |
Old warnings unfortunately smother spirit (7)
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RUM ( spirit ) in ALAS ( unfortunately ) |
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| 3 | DRIFT NET |
Uprising likely to be about split in fishing gear (5,3)
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reverse of TEND ( likely ) containing RIFT ( split ) |
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| 4 | ROWS |
Scraps right of way system in capitals (4)
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starting letter of "..Right Of Way System.." |
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| 5 | SLAVE TRADE |
Roll away from traveller’s load upset in terrible traffic (5,5)
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[ TrAVEllER'S LoAD ( without letters of ROLL ) ] |
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| 6 | LOOSE |
Free cans at finishing line (5)
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LOOS ( cans ) E ( linE, last letter ) |
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| 7 | DIALECT |
Local speech is part of media lecture (7)
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hidden, reversed "..meDIA LECTure" |
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| 8 | PSYCHIATRISTS |
Shrinks T-shirts with a spicy mixture (13)
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[ T-SHIRTS A SPICY ]* |
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| 9 | DONT MENTION IT |
You’re welcome to tinned duck cooked with mint (4,7,2)
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[ TO TINNED O ( duck ) MINT ]* |
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| 14 | STRIKES OUT |
Removes firm admitting Keir’s mistake (7,3)
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STOUT ( firm ) containing [ KEIR'S ]* |
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| 17 | ABORTIVE |
Failed by over-eating protein regularly (8)
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ABOVE ( over ) containing RTI ( pRoTeIn, alternate letters of ) |
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| 19 | TORQUAY |
Resort starts to take open returns to dock (7)
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TOR ( starting letters of "..Take Open Returns.." ) QUAY ( dock ) |
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| 21 | EMIRATI |
Irregular air-time for Arab (7)
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[ AIR TIME ]* |
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| 23 | SNAFU |
Upper class supporters turn up by mistake (5)
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U ( upper class ) FANS ( supporters ), reverse of |
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| 25 | DOUR |
No love for smell that’s severe (4)
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oDOUR ( smell, without O – 0 – love ) |
Fawlty Towers
Liked WILDEBEEST, INRUSHES, YOU STARTED IT, ROWS, SLAVE TRADE and ABORTIVE.
Thanks Gaff and Turbolegs.
RHINO
Black and white rhinos are being referred to, I think.
(Not balck and white money, I guess).
INRUSHES
The banks are covered IN RUSHES (the rush plants). Maybe the blog says the same thing.
Theme solutions include all of the perimeter, SEA VIEW, VEHEMENT, INSPECTORS, WILDEBEEST, ALARUMS, ROWS, DIALECT, TORQUAY, SNAFU, DOUR. I have watched and enjoyed this brilliant series many times.
Yes Fawlty Towers which was first broadcast in 1975 and has (mainly) aged very well. I counted 8 references.
Waldorf Salad was an episode name. There were also episodes about hotel Inspectors and a Psyschiatrist.
A guest complained about the Sea view: Basil asked her if she expected to see Wildebeests rather than Torquay.
In the Germans Basil was telling the team Dont Mention it (the war), but ending up insulting them by saying You started it
As Hovis @1 says, it’s Fawlty Towers, first broadcast 50 years ago, set in TORQUAY, with a SEA VIEW, maybe, and episodes including WALDORF SALAD, DON’T MENTION (the war), the PSYCHIATRISTS and the food INSPECTORs, also the catch phrase YOU STARTED IT. I’d add ROWS and VEHEMENT to the theme word.
Fun puzzle – thank you to Turbolegs and Gaff
Apart from the lightbulb moment of understanding the theme (afterwards) I enjoyed this one, liking Waldorf Salad, inspectors, tutu, alarums, psychiatrists.
24a Rhino = nose as in Rhinoplasty (nose job)/ black and white rhinos.
Great fun from Gaff: DON’T MENTION IT WALDORF SALAD tipped me off to the ‘watery fowls’ theme. Liked INSPECTORS, TUTU, ORIGAMI and the aforementioned 1a and 9d best.
Thanks to Gaff and Turbolegs.
Very cleverly done by Gaff and for once I got the theme very early, which helped things along. A couple of quibbles, though doubtless someone will tell me they are unjustified:
“Rhino” works as part of a longer word (as James P@6 says) but I am not sure that it on its own means nose, so I agree with Turbolegs on that ;
not convinced that “tour” equals “duty” – one can have a tour of duty, but the tour is not itself the duty.
Further on “tour”: I see that Chambers says that it can mean eg a diplomatic posting and simply says “(also tour of duty)”, so perhaps I was being too picky, though I am still inclined to think that the tour is really the period, not the duty.
Thought Fawlty T upon seeing Waldorf Salad, but hadn’t looked at Puzzle Info so it was just a passing flicker.
[Cleese was brilliant, especially at being apoplectic with rage then by huge effort physically squeezing it all down to answer the phone in best British polite voice]
Great puzzle, All Heil Gaff … oops.
Liked WALDORF SALAD and DOUR. ALARUMS, and were TOURACO jorums
I missed parsing VEHEMENT, and had the same problems as others with RHINO and COURT
I am a great fan of Fawlty Towers. I thought it was very funny to commemorate such a witty show with such a dry and humorless set of clues.
Thanks Gaff and Turbolegs
My first thought for COURT was CRUST–the earth’s crust has geological faults all over the place (which by definition do not extend into the mantle)–but of course that doesn’t fit the other half of the clue. Maybe one day a setter will use that one, though, so I’ll keep it in mind.
I didn’t watch the series, apart from seeing brief snatches but I knew enough about it to get the theme. It was all solvable though without knowing all the references.
Thanks, Gaff and Turbolegs.
I need to watch a good dose of the series this weekend! As an American for a long time I thought of DOUR but couldn’t figure out where the extra U was supposed to be coming from in odor! Thank you all.
Query from across the pond: how do bill members equate to INSPECTORS?
I am a fan of Fawlty Towers but haven’t internalized it to the point that I recognized any of the references before the reminders in the comments.
Thanks, Gaff, Turbolegs, and all the contributors.
TJOB@15 – “the bill” is one of (many) UK slang terms for police; inspector is a rank of police officer (roughly equivalent to your lieutenants, I think)